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British Council

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I‘ve traveled the world twice over,
Met the famous; saints and sinners,
Poets and artists, kings and queens,
Old stars and hopeful beginners,
I’ve been where no-one’s been before,
Learned secrets from writers and cooks
All with one library ticket
To the wonderful world of books.
~ Anonymous ~

The dream environment of any reader ought to be a library. No matter how many books you buy; the bliss of being surrounded by shelves and shelves of every kind of book imaginable and spending hours browsing through them at leisure is absolutely incomparable. Luckily for these readers then that there happen to be quite a number of well stocked libraries in Delhi which will be a source of joy for every true bookworm.

Among the private libraries, the best is undoubtedly Eloor. Located in South Extension, Part I, it charges 10% of the book price for 14 days and offers a wide range of books.

Probably one of Defence Colony’s best kept secrets is the cozy 3L Library behind Moet’s. The rent for borrowing books starts from Rs. 7 and escalates depending on your choice of book.

In central Delhi, there is the famous British Council Library in Kasturba Gandhi Marg. Apart from a collection of over 25000 books; they house educational videos, home videos, periodicals and newspapers from the UK. Right opposite the BCL is the comparatively less known American Centre Library. The Sahitya Akademi library, in Rabindra Bhavan CP, is one of the largest multi-lingual libraries in India, used by researchers and casual readers alike.

The Delhi Public Library is located in various parts of the city and its various locations can be looked up at its site: www.dpl.gov.in. A relatively new phenomenon is the online library ‘Friends of Books’ (www.friendsofbooks.com)which caters to Delhi and NCR. There couldn’t possibly be a more convenient way to get your hands on books, though the lack of physical evidence does tend to put off readers. After all there is nothing quite like leafing through the yellowing pages of thumbed down hard backs for yourself.